Nicholas Kiefer, economist and ‘towering intellect,’ dies at 73

Nicholas M. Kiefer, an economist whose deep curiosity and sharp insights into statistics and economic theory enabled him to parse an impressive range of financial and banking systems, died at home in Ithaca on March 12. He was 73.

As the Ta-Chung Liu Professor in the Department of Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Department of Statistics and Data Science in Cornell Bowers CIS, Kiefer’s work touched on everything from labor market dynamics, to financial economics, credit scoring and risk management in banking, to consumer trend forecasting and quantitative management techniques for the restaurant and retail industries.